Capital Region News

Gillibrand: “under-reporting continues”

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) issued the following statement Friday, Jan. 10 after the Defense Department released a report on sexual assaults at U.S. military academies:

“It is hard to draw any conclusions since no incidences survey was conducted this year. However it is clear the prevalence of sexual assault in the military and the crisis of underreporting continues to extend to the academies and that is tragic and heart breaking. This is why we need to give the men and women in the services, including at the academies, a justice system that is worthy of their service and will help root out these predators from the ranks and put them behind bars where they deserve to be.”

Note: A disturbing finding in the data is that there were more restricted than unrestricted reports. 29 were unrestricted and 41 were restricted. This is a reversal, last year there were 42 unrestricted and 38 restricted and the year before there were also more unrestricted than restricted. Restricted reports are not actionable and suggest victims fear coming forward to charge their attackers.